Prior to the automation of commercial scale apparel manufacturing lines, much of the detail-oriented work to be performed on individual apparel components required significant operator intervention. A shirt cuff provides a typical example. Preparing a shirt cuff blank for the finished shirt requires, at a minimum, two discrete manufacturing operations. First, a button hole must be cut and sewn-finished at one end of the cuff blank. Next, the cuff blank must be rotated 180.degree. so that one or more buttons may be sewn onto the opposing end of the cuff blank. Prior to assembly line automation worker intervention was required to manually position a cuff blank under the machine which cut and sew-finished a button hole. Next, a worker would have to position it under another machine that would attach one or more buttons to the opposing end of the shirt cuff.
Widespread reliance on manual labor to accomplish these functions can be costly, both from the point of view of the quality of the work and the time required for such work.
Numerous ways exist to remedy the problem of product quality and efficient output. One way is to create some sort of control system to ensure accuracy in performing the manufacturing operations. For example, aligning means or marks can be placed on the work surface below each individual machine to assist the operator in correctly aligning the work piece for that particular manufacturing operation. Another way is to mark the work piece in the exact location where the operation is to be performed. Both these solutions are less than desirable for higher speed commercial operations. Both continue to require significant worker intervention and demand that the worker become accustomed to rapid coordination of the workpiece with the individual control systems. Although a highly skilled worker can achieve a good output rate employing these solutions, under the constraints of productivity individual workers will differ. Moreover, the commercial output of the machines continues to remain dependent on individual worker capabilities.
As previously mentioned, the preferred solution to excessive worker intervention was to automate the manufacturing lines. Automation reduced the need for individual worker intervention and contributed to higher rates of output and better accuracy and hence, quality, in the finished product. However, even before the process of automatic assembly can commence, the automatic system should be provided with a mechanism for entering the workpiece into the system in a regular manner.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a simple and efficient means to rapidly and accurately align workpieces.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a simple and efficient way to rapidly and accurately align a workpiece prior to subjecting the workpiece to a manufacturing process.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide means and method for rapidly and accurately aligning a workpiece at a reference location with a minimum of worker intervention.